The chairman of the EVE Online Council of Stellar Management has announced his intention to resign from his position as a result of an event last week in which a suicidal player was mocked during FanFest. The panel discussion was billed as "unfiltered" but, according to Gianturco, his actions were unacceptable.
According to a post on the EVE forums, Gianturco indicated that he was over intoxicated and didn't realize what he had said though he also qualified that this was not an excuse for his behavior.
I feel absolutely ashamed of my behavior at the Alliance Panel. It's one thing to play a villain in an online roleplaying game - when I post on these forums or on twitter, I usually do so as 'The Mittani', and do my level best to convince everyone that I'm an unrepentant space villain, as that kind of facade provides an in-game advantage to me and my alliance. But I am not that character in real life, as anyone who has met me can attest. I went way, way, /way/ past the line on Thursday night by mocking the Mackinaw miner at a real-life event. I, as a person, am not the entity that I play in EVE; I am not actually a sociopath or a sadist, and I certainly don't want people to kill themselves in real life over an internet spaceship game, no matter what I may say or do within the game itself. CCP may say 'EVE is Real', but EVE is not real - and the line between the game and reality should not be overstepped.
As yet, Gianturco has not completed his resignation though he has indicated that he will do so via his Mittani Twitter account. We'll keep you posted as the story develops.
Read the apology on the EVE Online forum.
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